The Lack of Repercussions on Social Media
The lack of consequences for cyberbullying on social media websites, like Instagram is the reason there are so many hateful people on social media, and why the hate never stops. In today’s age, social media has become a pretty big part of our lives. It’s a way to connect with family, friends, and communities nationwide. But, with social media comes hate and negativity like toxicity, embarrassment, and cyberbullying. To shut that down, Instagram should include a mechanism for banning users who are mean to other users if the number of complaints lodged against them is credible and sufficient. Currently, there is no punishment on Instagram, people just continue to keep being mean because they don’t see anyone getting punished for it. Suppose the hateful user keeps attacking other users, and knows that they’re not receiving a punishment. In that case, it makes the hateful user want to attack more because of the lack of repercussions.
Cyberbullying is unfortunately a very “popular” thing in the world. “Cyberbullying is the use of technology to harass, threaten, embarrass, or target another person”. As a result of this, the victims of CB face many issues including, bad mental health, embarrassment, and low emotional stress. When doing research on the consequences of cyberbullying, the key word that shows up in a lot of search results is “may”. “The person may get suspended from school”…. “The person may face serious penalties”. It shouldn’t be “may” it should be they will. “They will face serious penalties”… “they will get suspended from school”. Websites like instagram or X, let to many people off the hook and give all these people too many chances. Again, yes they can be reported, but it seems as though all those sites will do is just ban your account, and that person can make another one. Not to mention, who is checking these accounts, specifically who is running that department. Is someone sitting in front of a screen, declining or accepting who they want banned. Maybe, who knows. But, These cyberbullies keep attacking because the chances of penalties are 50/50. “In a quest to make Instagram a kinder, gentler place, the founders had borrowed from Facebook an AI tool known as DeepText, which was designed to understand and interpret the language people were using on the platform. The next year, they trained it to find and block offensive comments, including racial slurs. By mid-2018, they were using it to find bullying in comments, too. A week after Mosseri took over in October, Instagram announced it wouldn’t just use AI to search for bullying in remarks tacked below users’ posts; it would start using machines to spot bullying in photos, meaning that AI would also analyze the posts themselves.”We already know how unreliable AI can be at times, and we also know that It also can be incorrect. Why are we letting AI ban people and block offensive comments? There needs to be no AI, just real people detecting the hate. The hypothesis that I want implemented will have these specific users think twice before partaking in negative interactions and promote responsibility among the community.
Additionally, hate speech and discriminatory language have no place on social media platforms. Implementing stricter repercussions for users who engage in hate speech could help create a safer online environment. This could include suspending accounts, removing offensive content. “It means that a small group of private companies have a lot of power over what speech gets heard and what speech doesn’t,” Nott says. “While that might not violate the First Amendment, it is something that people who value free speech should pay attention to [in the future].”
In conclusion, the hypothesis that Instagram should include a mechanism for banning users who are mean to other users, based on credible and sufficient complaints, holds significant promise for providing a more positive and inclusive online community. As mentioned before, social media can be a very positive outlet and hold many beneficial features. But, it also holds negative features and with that holds many issues, specifically cyberbullying and hate. Social media sites like instagram, need to hold more of the people who hate accountable. If there are no repercussions involved and nobody faces consequences, these people will continue to keep hating, which is the root to why so many people hate social media.
References
Steinmetz, K. (2019, July 8). Inside Instagram’s ambitious plan to fight bullying. Time. https://time.com/5619999/instagram-mosseri-bullying-artificial-intelligence/
Miller, J. (2020, April 21). Can Hate Be Banned From Social Media? New Jersey State Bar Foundation. https://njsbf.org/2020/04/21/can-hate-be-banned-from-social-media/
Walther, J. B. (2022). Social Media and Online Hate. Current Opinion in Psychology, 45. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.copsyc.2021.12.010
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Counterintuitive Spring 2024 
Hey, DogLover!
I appreciate your request for Feedback and will respond to it in the order I hear back from the six students I have not yet served.
You didn’t specify a time limit for me, but I hope you will.
As you know, I expect you to spend as much time revising your work as I spend providing feedback.
So . . . care to set a limit, or prescribe what sort of feedback you’d most like to receive, or . . . just take your chances?
Thanks! (I hope you’re enjoying your Spring Break!)
—DSH
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OK, DogLover. You didn’t set a limit, and I can’t let this entire week go by without providing you some feedback, so I’m just going to start and see how long it takes. You’ll be obligated to match me time-for-time with Revisions if you want a Regrade. I’ll try to limit myself to observations about your Argument and Evidence for this first round.
—You start with a very clear and straightforward thesis statement as your opening sentence, DogLover. That’s a great tactic. Readers know what to expect. You set yourself up as someone who knows something important, and you set the stage for a presentation.
—You do not need to backfill with any claim about the importance of “social media” unless you plan to distinguish different platforms for special attention. I’ve struck through the sentence that serves no purpose. I’ve substituted a few words that provide the bridge you wanted.
—”Being mean” is so incredibly vague that it doesn’t actual serve your needs here. If you didn’t sufficiently define “hate speech,” if that’s what you want to ban, you should return to your DefCat argument and do that. Then be very careful about what terms you use here.
—You spend the rest of your Introduction saying the same thing several times. One well-written sentence would do the job.
—What would be REALLY EFFECTIVE here is a vivid example. Do you have an anecdote about a person who committed suicide after systematic attacks by a hateful Instagram user? Even better, is there a story about a user who pleaded with Instagram for help combatting hateful attacks, and who got no help?
—Such evidence eliminates the need for you to form new language to convince your readers of what they can conclude themselves from the example.
I’ve been on your page for 15 minutes now, DogLover. I have plenty more to say about your argument and evidence, but I’m going to volley this back to you now, along with a provisional grade. You’ll have to guess what I think about the rest of your essay until you respond with some revisions and another Feedback Please request.
Provisionally graded at Canvas. Regrades are always available following significant improvement.
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MAKE NO CHANGES TO THIS POST. Instead:
1. Copy and paste its contents into your new Causal Rewrite—DogLover.
2. If you require no Feedback, that completes your assignment. You will receive no Feedback, but you could still revise your work without feedback and receive a Regrade.
3. Remember, your complete Portfolio MUST CONTAIN evidence of Feedback and Revision for two of your three short arguments, Definition / Causal / Rebuttal. If you receive no feedback for THIS assignment, you’ll need Feedback on the other two.
4. If you DO want feedback following your first draft grade, put your Rewrite in to Feedback Please.
5. THAT’S NOT THE LAST STEP.
6. The last step is to leave a Reply on your Rewrite post instructing me how much time you want me to spend on your Feedback. For every hour I spend, you’ll owe me an hour of Revision Time.
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I will just note for the record before I depart that your quote from Nott does not favor banning of anybody. I don’t know the rest of Nott’s name (because only Steinmetz, Miller, and Walther appear in your References), but Nott is cautioning us AGAINST letting a few companies (IG, FB, etc) decide who gets to express an opinion and who gets banned from speaking.
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